No provincial berths for local senior curlers

Stealing is illegal, unless you’re Rob Alderdice. Then it’s productive.
The Dryden skip led Bryan Bonot’s Stratton rink by only one point with two ends to play in Sunday’s second-place tiebreaker at the Northwestern senior curling playdowns in Manitouwadge.
But with Bonot holding the hammer in both the ninth and 10th ends, Alderdice pulled out a steal of one in the final frame to come away with a 9-7 victory and join Fort William’s Rick Lang in qualifying for the provincial playdowns Dec. 17-20 in Sioux Lookout.
Alderdice scored a deuce in the first en route to a 4-1 lead after four ends. That’s when Bonot and his rink of third Terry Lee, second Ron Martinuk, and lead Ted Stewart exploded for a five-ender in the fifth to vault into a 6-4 lead.
After Alderdice tied it up with two in the sixth, Bonot only could come away with a single in the seventh—despite having last rock—to make it 7-6.
Alderdice, who had topped Bonot 6-5 in the round-robin portion when he stole singles in the ninth and 10th, then grabbed another pair in the eighth to go back up 8-7.
But after Bonot blanked the ninth to keep last rock in the 10th, the Dryden crew looked to be in serious peril. Yet, Alderdice maintained his poise and stole one to put the final nail in Bonot’s coffin.
Bonot had posted a 5-2 record in the round-robin to sit tied with Alderdice behind Lang (6-1), a three-time Brier winner and two-time world champ.
The Stratton skip beat Gary Ball (Thunder Bay) 5-2 and Jim Pick (Marathon) 11-4 to start the bonspiel, before being upended by Lang 7-1 in seven ends on Thursday night.
Bonot then split his next two games Friday with a 10-3 pounding of Bob Hensrud (Kenora) coupled with the loss to Alderdice.
Needing to win both his matches Saturday, Bonot came through with a 7-3 triumph over Jim Armstrong (Fort Frances), where he clicked for three-straight deuces in the third through fifth ends to bust open a 1-1 tie.
He then stymied Finn Willman (Red Rock) by a 6-2 count, scoring three in the first and four-straight singles from the sixth to the ninth to close the game.
Ball finished fourth in the round robin at 4-3 while Willman was fifth at 3-4.
Armstrong and his crew of third Tom Fry, second Lauchie Meagher, and lead Ray Rousseau tied Pick at 2-4 for sixth place, ahead of last-place Hensrud (0-7).
With both rinks already out of contention, Armstrong and Pick agreed to forego their round-robin finale against each other.
Armstrong had posted wins over Willman (9-8) and Hensrud (10-4), but had his provincials hopes doused in losses to Lang (8-4), Ball (8-2), Alderdice (13-5), and Bonot.
< *c>LaBelle falters
Meanwhile, the women’s portion of the championship saw Judy LaBelle of Fort Frances and her team of third Diane Bonot, second Pat Steele, and lead Sally Stewart muster just a 1-4 record to finish in a three-way tie for fourth with Helen Boyce (Kenora) and Marion Ball (Fort William).
“The problem was nerves,” said LaBelle. “We haven’t competed at this level very much. Plus, our stamina was a factor. Those other teams down there play five nights a week.
“We don’t, and to play five games in three days was a lot for us.”
If LaBelle was counting on an easy opener, that idea was turned on its ear in a hurry when Muriel Anderson (Ojibway Golf and Country Club) jumped out to a 5-0 lead after the first end.
LaBelle wouldn’t fold the tent, though, scoring three in the second to pull within two. After Anderson tallied another pair in the third, LaBelle responded with three in the fourth and two more in the fifth to take her first lead at 8-7.
The wild match then saw the two teams trade deuces the rest of the way, with Anderson scoring last in the 10th to escape with a 13-12 win.
“We should have won it,” said a rueful LaBelle, who rebounded with a 12-8 win over Ball, which included a rare steal of six in the fifth end.
“The game’s never finished until it’s finished,” she remarked. “But after we got that six, that was pretty much it.”
Boyce took the air out of LaBelle’s rink with a 10-3 win in her next outing as the Kenora skip scored the last five points, including three steals.
“She just nitpicked us to death,” declared LaBelle. “But their team was curling really well.”
The toughest trials came at the end for LaBelle, whose last two games were against the Port Arthur duo of Brenda Coopman and Sharon Giertuga.
Coopman (5-0) and Giertuga (4-1) would wind up qualifying for the provincials in Sioux Lookout, but LaBelle made the first-place finisher sweat somewhat to maintain her perfect record.
The Fort Frances rink bolted to a 5-0 lead after three ends, and led 6-2 at the halfway mark. But Coopman scored one in the sixth, then stole two in the seventh and four in the eighth to go up 9-6.
LaBelle managed a single in the ninth, but shook her opponent’s hand after that to signal the end of the game.
The weary local side then tangled with Giertuga, and after registering a four-spot in the third, actually led the Port Arthur rink 5-3 after three.
But Giertuga regrouped and scored singles in the fourth and fifth, as well as a deuce in the sixth, to lead 7-5.
LaBelle tried to keep Giertuga in range with a single in the seventh, but her team’s exhaustion level led to Giertuga scoring four in the eighth and then stealing five in the ninth to end the rout.
“That was our first time together as a team,” replied LaBelle when asked to look ahead to next year (Stewart usually plays with other partners).
“It was a wonderful experience,” she added. “It’s always been a goal of mine [to qualify for the provincials] and I’m going to keep trying.”